Sydney Film Festival announces last-minute additions

In what has become a regular feature of Sydney Film Festival, a stash of late additions have been announced to the 12-day film feast, which kicks off across town this Wednesday evening. The ten extra films are mostly ones that made their mark in May at the Cannes Film Festival, which is why they were not confirmed in time for the festival's main program announcement.

Leading the pack is Booksmart, the directorial debut for actor Olivia Wilde. A coming-of-age comedy about two 'good' girls who decide to cut loose on their last day before graduation, this girl-power themed movie has had rave reviews.

On the opposite end of the spectrum comes the timely new drama by British veteran protest filmmaker Ken Loach, Sorry We Missed You, about a working-class family struggling under the gig economy. Also from Cannes are The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, a Brazilian drama about the impact of conservatism on two estranged sisters; Jury Prize winner Les Misérables, about a police patrol in Paris gone horribly wrong; Best Screenplay and Queer Palm winner Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a period drama about the romance between a female painter and her model; and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia’s documentary Diego Maradona, a portrait of the famous soccer player.

Peruvian film Song Without a Name tells the true story of the theft of a newborn baby. The Unknown Saint is a Moroccan comedy about a criminal whose buried loot has a mausoleum built over it. And The Whistlers from Romania concerns a cop who becomes embroiled in the crimes he’s investigating.

There's also true-life thriller Official Secrets,with Keira Knightley as the British whistleblower who leaked information about the invasion of Iraq and faced prison for it.

Nick Dent joined Time Out in 2008 and is the Editorial Director, Time Out Australia.

Based in Sydney, his area of expertise is Film, but he also writes about Art, Theatre, Travel and Music, and he has many years of experience as a sub editor. In addition to writing about Film for Time Out, he has published more than 1,000 film reviews in NewsCorp's Australian Sunday papers. These days he largely wrestles with branded content for clients, and in 2019 he had his first children's book published.